


When All The Lights Go Out

by VarjoRuusu



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: AU, Angst, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, In the area of season 4 AU, Kidnapped, M/M, Mentions of Past Torture, Mild Torture Themes, Pre-Relationship, Sleep Deprivation, Trapped, ish, supporting each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-09-27 17:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10037072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal raid. Really it was. So when Danny groggily came to, chained to Steve, still out cold, he knew it had, just had, to be the other mans fault.---Kidnapped during a raid, Steve and Danny find themselves locked in a room with one window. Through that window is a dirty bomb and there is only one hour on the counter and no way to get to it and the only way to slow it down is to talk, continuously. How long can they hold out and how long will it take Chin and Kono to find them?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thelastatlantean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelastatlantean/gifts).



> Right. So I came up with a silly idea that thelastatlantean posted to tumblr for people to write and then I got impatient. So I started writing it myself and it blew to pieces. This is expected to be a four part story and I am undecided if it will be in one story or in a series. Most likely one, since they will tie together with the previous events making later installments less able to be read alone. 
> 
> Please enjoy this crazy mess and leave a comment if you like it!
> 
> P.S. Don't ask about the title, I don't know. I'm thinking it will get explained down the line in chapter 3 or 4.

It was supposed to be a normal raid. Really it was. So when Danny groggily came to, chained to Steve, still out cold, he knew it had, just had, to be the other mans fault.

Rolling over with a groan Danny looked up at a concrete ceiling, four corners, one of which had a camera in it, four concrete walls and one large interrogation style window. The interior decoration was completed by one lovely concrete floor.

“Steve, wake up,” Danny managed, his voice hoarse as he tried to shove Steve with his free hand. His right hand was chained to Steve's left with a pair of handcuffs, a generous two foot chain between them. Steve groaned, coughing as he slowly regained consciousness.

“Danny?”

“I'm here, babe,” Danny muttered, rolling onto his knees and pushing himself up. He coughed roughly, his head spinning and his stomach churning.

“You ok?” Steve asked, rolling far enough onto his side to get a hand on Danny's shoulder.

“Yeah,” Danny managed, squeezing his eyes shut. “Yeah, no, I'm not ok, Steve, I am really not ok.”

“You remember anything?” Steve asked, managing to sit up as Danny leaned back on his heels, finally opening his eyes again, and took a deep breath.

“I remember the raid, the call about the...”

“Anonymous tip about the drug ring we've been after, yeah,” Steve nodded, rubbing his forehead with the back of his free hand.

“We busted down the door and that's it. Nada, zip, nothing,” Danny said, running his hands through his hair, the chain clinking.

“Knock out gas,” Steve muttered. “I remember...something hit my ankle, must have been a trip wire, gas canister.”

“Great,” Danny groaned. “Just great.”

“ _Gentlemen, you are awake,”_ a voice suddenly came from nowhere. Steve froze, eyes darting around the room and taking in everything Danny had already noticed, namely absolutely nothing, just the walls, camera, and window.

“Who's there?” Steve barked.

“ _That is not important. What is important, gentlemen, is that you should have a look through the window.”_

Danny glanced at Steve and they got to their feet. Steve was slightly faster and held out a hand to Danny who grabbed it and hauled himself up. Their hands were still clasped when they both looked through the window and saw the device sitting on the table. Danny's grip tightened on Steve, who instinctively gripped back.

“Steve, that's a bomb,” Danny whispered.

“ _A bit simplistic, but accurate, detective. I am a fan of sport, gentleman, and I have left clues for the other members of your team that will lead them to this location. However, the clues are difficult, and most likely they will not reach you in time. As you can see, the timer is set for one hour.”_

The timer on the bomb flashed on, 1:00:00 displaying in bright red numbers. Steve unconsciously leaned closer to Danny, as if he wanted to pull the other man behind him.

“ _You have your hour, however, you can extend that time,”_ the voice told them. It was just occurring to Danny's mind that they wouldn't be able to identify the person because they were using a voice modulator.

“How?” Steve asked, finally getting his own voice to work again.

“ _By talking. All you have to do is talk, and the counter will remain paused, giving your team extra time to find you, and attempt to disable the bomb.”_

“That's...that doesn't sound very...” Danny struggled for a word. He didn't want to say 'dastardly' but it was all his mind would provide. The voice interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.

“ _How long can you talk, detective? You have no food, more importantly, you have no water. How long can you keep going?”_

Suddenly Danny's throat felt dry as paper and he felt Steve instinctively swallow. Shit.

“ _Good luck, detective, commander.”_

A click sounded and the seconds began to tick.

“Shit, shit shit shit shit shit!” Danny shouted, pulling his hand away from Steve at last and rushing towards the window.

“Danny, calm down, we can do this, ok?” Steve said, following him when the chain went taut. They stood shoulder to shoulder, right to left, the chain between them.

“What kind of a thing is this, Steve, how bad is this going to be?” Danny asked, eyes glued to the bomb.

“It's...shit, Danno, that's a dirty bomb. Depending on if they got something nuclear and how much, it could have a blast radius of ten miles. Maybe twenty.”

“Twenty...twenty miles, Steve, if we're still on Oahu, that will take out over half the island,” Danny said, his voice filled with panic.

“I know, I know, Danny,” Steve said, banging a hand against the glass. It bounced. “This is plexiglass, without something big and heavy we're never going to break it.”

“So, what, we have to talk for god knows how many hours until they find us? You heard creepy and freakish on the loudspeaker, how long do you really think we can keep it up?”

Steve raised his hand, gripping the back of Danny's neck tightly as the chain rattled, trying to give the other man at least a small sense of stability. “As long as we have to,” he said quietly. “As long as we have to.”

 

**~Hour 1~**

“I hated sports as a kid,” Danny sighed, rubbing his head. He had been talking for the better part of forty-five minutes now and his throat was starting to hurt. The only positive part about this entire situation was that the bastards that had dumped them here had left them with Steve's watch, so they knew approximately when they came to, and how long they had been holding off the counter.

58:54 the numbers now read. They couldn't keep talking every single second, there had been pauses for breath and thought and in just under an hour they had lost about a minute. There was no way they would keep talking for the next fifty-nine hours, but they could certainly try.

“You hated sports,” Steve deadpanned, staring at Danny. “You're like, a sports _nut_ , Danny.”

“Yeah, _now_. When I was a little kid I hated them, it wasn't until junior high when my dad made me at least try out for the baseball team that they started to grow on me,” Danny said, waving his hands and causing the chain to clink. Steve had spent the last hour while Danny talked trying to get the cuffs open, but with no luck.

“Baseball huh?” Steve grinned. “So while you were out hating on sports I was already trashing the rest of this island at football.” Danny glared at him for a few seconds.

 

58:45

 

“Shut up, Steve.”

 

**~Hour 3~**

“You know,” Steve said calmly, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed while Danny stood watching the clock, leaning over a little so Steve could keep his hand resting on his leg, rather than hold it up to avoid pulling on the cuff on Danny's wrist. For once Danny was glad he was short. “It's got to be cooler in here than it is outside.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Danny asked, glancing at Steve.

“It's July, Danno, it's almost 90 degrees and the humidity was supposed to hit 100% this afternoon,” Steve chuckled. “It can't be more than 75 in here.”

“You're insane,” Danny sighed. There was silence for almost a minute after that.

 

55:01

 

“I'm just...looking for something positive,” Steve whispered, not opening his eyes. Danny sighed, sinking down on the floor so his side was pressed against Steve's. He reached out and laid his hand over Steve's the chains clinking together.

“I know,” he said quietly, and they lapsed into silence.

 

**~Hour 7~**

37:42

 

“How much longer do you think we can keep this up?” Danny asked groggily, his eyes drooping. Steve squeezed his hand tightly, trying to keep him awake even though he himself was fading.

“Can you sleep while I talk?” Steve asked, tilting his head toward Danny. They both had their eyes closed, neither wanting to look at the ever diminishing timer. They had done well, only losing just over twenty-three minutes in seven hours, but neither one was sure they could keep going.

“Babe, I could sleep through a hurricane while you talked, but can you stay awake to wake me up?”

“Danno, I've been on missions where I couldn't sleep for seventy hours at a stretch,” Steve grumbled, his SEAL pride trying to rear its head.

“That's nice,” Danny muttered. His head was on Steve's shoulder and he was barely awake.

“Go to sleep, Danny, I'll wake you up in half an hour,” Steve muttered, leaning his cheek against Danny's blond hair. The other man was already out cold before Steve had finished his sentence. So he kept talking, he talked about his childhood, the weather, the finer points of surfing, gun maintenance, even car repair. Half an hour later he dozed off to the sound of Danny returning to sports and proudly reciting every rule, even the most minor and unused, of every sport he had ever come to love, of which there were many.

 

**~Hour 12~**

They managed that way for a few hours, trading half hours of sleep while the other talked, but even that was taking its toll. Twelve hours of talking with no water had left them both raspy and fighting to even make a sound.

“What do you think...the point to all this was?” Danny asked, barely above a whisper. It was enough, it seemed, the bomb's red lights staying where they were.

 

26:13

 

“Point?” Steve rasped.

“Yeah,” Danny ground out. “Point. Why would someone kidnap us and lock us in a room across from a dirty bomb, wired with ultra sensitive microphones and make us talk for...” He glanced at his watch. “Twelve hours.”

“I dunno, Danny,” Steve said wearily, opening his eyes to glance at Danny, still leaning against his side. “There are lots of crazy people in this world.”

“Yeah but why us?”

“We're 5-0?”

“There should be a better reason than that,” Danny mumbled, losing his battle with the sleepiness that was trying to overtake him again.

“Hey, hey Danno, come on, don't fall asleep. I can't stay awake again if you fall asleep, Danny please,” Steve said, turning so he could get a hand on Danny's face and shake him a little, keeping him awake. His voice was desperate, filled with a terror Danny had never heard before.

“I'm here, I'm awake,” Danny muttered, not opening his eyes but raising his hand to grip Steve's tightly. Their foreheads were touching and Danny sighed, leaning against Steve. “I don't know for how much longer, though.”

“We gotta stay awake, Danny, we have to keep talking, they'll find us soon, I know it,” Steve said, his voice so raw his words were barely distinguishable.

“You really think we'll get out of this?” Danny asked quietly, raising his other hand to touch Steve's cheek. His mind zeroed in on Steve's warm breath mingling with his own, trying not to think about anything else.

“We're getting out of this, Danny, I swear to god we are getting out of this and you are going home to your little girl,” Steve croaked, his grip on Danny tightening. Danny sucked in a breath, nodding as he fought back tears.

Danny had spent hours eight through eleven talking about Grace, everything from the moment he found out Rachel was pregnant to Grace's birth, her name, her first step, her first word, her first day of school, her first loose and lost tooth, every tiny minute detail he could think of, he had told Steve. Eventually he had passed out on Steve's shoulder, his cheeks still wet from the tears at the thought of never seeing his beautiful baby girl again.

“She's not so little,” Danny chuckled, fresh tears pouring down his cheeks. He knew he should try and stop them, he knew he was dehydrated already and every tear he cried made it worse but he couldn't stop seeing her face twisted in anguish when she learned Rachel's father had died. His imagination kept showing him just how much worse it would be when she found out that her Danno was gone too.

“Danny, Danny, we'll get through this, I promise, Danny, I promise,” Steve said, pulling Danny into his arms as completely as the cuffs would allow, holding him close as he promised over and over, trying to sooth the other man, even just a little.

“It's going to kill her,” Danny sobbed finally, forcing his voice from his raw throat. “Not just losing me, but losing you too. She loves you so much.”

“And I love her, and that's why we're getting out of here, Danny. We are getting out of here,” Steve all but growled, holding Danny as tightly as he could and pressing his face against Danny's hair.

 

**~Hour 15~**

13:57

 

They were slipping, which wasn't surprising after so long. They had lost two minutes in the first three hours. In the last three they had lost almost thirteen. Steve had done his best to keep talking when Danny fell asleep again but for every few minutes he talked he had to stop and let his voice recover. He was starting to lose hope now. Danny was still out cold and Steve didn't have the heart to wake him.

 

**~Hour 17~**

10:00

 

“Do you still think they'll find us?” Danny asked. He had returned to his position next to Steve, leaning heavily against his side with their hands entwined and their heads leaning together.

“I have to, Danny, I can't think about what happens if they don't.”

“You do realize,” Danny said, hating where his train of thought was going but unable to stop the words spilling from his mouth. “If this thing goes off and we take out half the island, plus nuclear fallout...they'll all be gone. Grace will never get to miss me because she'll...”

“Jesus, Danno, don't,” Steve rasped, tightening his grip on Danny's hand. “Don't say that, please,” he begged, his voice breaking as he began to cry. He had been through heavy combat training, simulated torture, real torture, psychiatric programming to help cope with torture and PTSD, sleep deprivation, as training and as torture, bullets, knife wounds, concussions from sports and IED's, but nothing, nothing had even come close to hurting as badly as the words Danny had almost said.

“None of us will feel a thing,” Danny mused and Steve forced himself to sit up, away from the wall, turning towards Danny and holding his face to make Danny look at him.

“Don't give up, Danny, don't you dare give up on me, not now,” Steve said, holding Danny roughly. “Don't you even think about giving up, you fucking chicken livered, Bon Jovi loving, pineapple hating, Jersey attitude, sorry excuse for a cop, don't you dare!”

“You trying to make me hit you again, superseal?” Danny chuckled, his eyes opening just enough to meet Steve's.

“Anything it takes, Danno,” Steve whispered. “Just don't give up on me, please, don't give up.”

“It's ok,” Danny said, taking a deep breath, his hands holding onto Steve's wrists like a lifeline. “I'm here, babe, I'm right here.”

“Jesus, you're going to be the death of me one day,” Steve shuddered.

“Not if you're the death of me first,” Danny mumbled, summoning a grin he didn't really feel.

“When we get out of this,” Steve began.

“If we get out of this,” Danny interrupted. Steve glared.

“ _When_ we get out of this, we're going to talk about some things,” Steve finished. Danny raised his eyebrows.

“There's something we haven't talked about?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, there is,” Steve said, his eyes locked on Danny's. “And we're not talking about it here.”

“Steve...”

“No, Danny. We're not talking about it here. Promise me. When we get out.”

“When we get out,” Danny breathed.

“Ok.”

“Ok.”

 

9:07

* * *

 

When Danny opened his eyes again he was blinded by the glow of florescent lights and bright white walls. He groaned, squinting until his eyes adjusted, taking a deep breath and smelling the unmistakable scent of hospital. He opened his mouth, nothing but a croak emerging. Suddenly there was a hand in his, smaller than the one he expected. He managed to turn his head to see Kono watching him with worried eyes.

“Don't talk, Danny, you did some damage to your vocal cords and you need to let them heal or you might lose your voice permanently,” she said softly. “You want some water?”

Danny nodded and Kono released his hand to pull a tray closer with a pitcher and a cup, helping him sit up and take a drink slowly. He was hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor and there was a white gauze bandage on the wrist that had been cuffed to Steve. Steve, Jesus, where was Steve?”

“He's ok,” Kono said, obviously reading the expression on his face. “He's in the next room, they didn't have any with space for two beds left. We found you with less than two minutes left on the bomb. Fortunately whoever took you left us enough clues that we had the bomb squad with us and they disabled it.”

Danny made a face at her and she shook her head.

“Sorry, we haven't caught the guy,” she said sadly.

“Steve,” Danny croaked, even though Kono glared at him.

She sighed and glanced around, waving to one of the nurses through the window. She explained quietly that Danny wanted to see Steve and wouldn't be taking no for an answer, so a few minutes later Danny was rolled into Steve's room, the nurses unwilling to let him out of bed. Some furniture had been removed to make room for Danny's bed next to Steve's, which was now pressed against the wall and the curtain covered windows. Danny really didn't care that there was barely an inch left to move in the room, all he cared about was that he could lean against Steve's side and twist their fingers together again. He was asleep in seconds.

 

* * *

 

 

Steve smelled hospital as soon as he was conscious, so he knew better than to open his eyes right away. There was a weight against his right side and a hand gripping his tightly. When he managed to crack one eye open he found a head of brown hair just under his nose and he blinked in confusion. Then he realized it was Grace.

Danny's bed was next to his and Danny was pressed against his side, hand in his, and Grace was sprawled out half on each of them, her forehead pressed against Danny's and her hair in Steve's face. He smiled, raising his other hand and gently laying it on her back, careful not to disturb the IV in his arm. He glanced over Grace's head and spotted Rachel through the window, asleep in a chair that looked like it belonged in the hospital room, but given how much space the beds took up, obviously didn't fit anymore.

Steve let his eyes drift shut, his hand gripping Danny's and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

 

* * *

 

 

When they were discharged three days later, with strict instructions not to speak more than an hour a day for the next week, Chin drove them to Steve's house in silence, checking if they needed anything before he left them alone. He and Kono had tried to give them as much space as they could in the hospital but with whoever had kidnapped them still out there, one of them had almost always been in or near the room. He hadn't told Steve about the ten cop strong plain clothed protection detail scattered around the neighborhood either, knowing Steve would just object, loudly.

Danny waved as Chin pulled away, following Steve in the house and collapsing heavily on the couch next to him.

“I want this bastard's head on a plate,” Danny said after a while of sitting in silence. Steve nodded, slinging an arm around Danny and drawing him close.

“Can I torture him first?” Steve asked. Danny rolled his eyes, smacking Steve's chest with one hand.

“Only if I get a turn,” he mumbled, turning his face into Steve's neck and breathing in the other mans scent, tainted by the smell of hospital though it was.

“We made it, Danno,” Steve whispered, the whole ordeal coming back to him like a sack full of bricks hitting him in the chest. “We made it.”

“We did,” Danny nodded, reaching his arm across Steve's stomach to grip his side, holding him tightly. “We're going to need so much therapy, but we did.”

“You remember what I said, near the end? That I wouldn't talk about it in there?” Steve asked, his voice a whisper. He should be scared, he knew he should, but after what they had been through, he wasn't the least bit afraid. He wasn't willing to waste any more time.

“Oh,” Danny said, his voice raising the way it did when he started in on Steve about jumping off a building or mishandling a suspect. “You mean the bit about how you weren't going to confess that you're madly in love with me while we were three feet away from a dirty bomb? See, Steve, that's the problem, that's exactly the time you tell someone you're madly in love with them, when you're about to die. You don't refuse to do it until after, assuming there is an after, and letting everything ride on-”

Danny was cut off by Steve's mouth on his, silencing his good natured rant. He smiled against Steve, pulling him closer to kissing him back just as desperately, one hand burying in Steve's hair as he twisted around so they were face to face.

“I love you,” Steve said as they broke apart, before he pulled Danny back for more.

“I got that,” Danny grinned. “Jackass.”

Steve chuckled, pulling away to stare at Danny's face. “I don't want to live without you,” he said softly.

“Some would argue most of the time you don't want to live at all,” Danny shrugged and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Come on, man, I'm trying to be serious here. Pouring my heart out and you just-”

“I love you too,” Danny said simply, his face a soft smile. “You're the most reckless idiot I've ever met and so help me god if you give me a heart attack before I'm fifty I will kill you myself, but I love you.”

Steve stared for a moment then nodded. “Good,” he said, dragging Danny back into a deep kiss, their tongues joining the mix and fighting for control.

“Upstairs,” Danny gasped a moment later. “I'm too old to neck on the couch.”

“Romantic,” Steve mumbled sarcastically as he stood and hauled Danny to his feet, never breaking the kiss, his hands resting on Danny's lower back as they pressed together.

“Shut up, Steve,” Danny muttered and Steve grinned into their kiss.

He was still going to torture and possibly decapitate whoever had tried to blow up half of Oahu, but maybe, just maybe, he was going to thank them first.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Next you'll be proposing,” Danny grumbled, his pacing resumed as he glanced over at the thermometer. 44.7. Chilly. Really chilly, but still livable. He was trying not to think about what would happen when they entered hour six and the temperature started dropping.
> 
> “I'm saving that for something special,” Steve smirked, staying positive by enjoying riling Danny up. 
> 
> “Special, special he says,” Danny ranted to the ceiling. “Trapped in a room with a bomb wasn't special enough to say 'I love you', trapped in a freezer isn't special enough for a marriage proposal, what's a guy gotta do around here?” he asked, throwing his hands up as Steve grinned.
> 
> “What, you want me to propose?” Steve chuckled.
> 
> “Yes, no, not now damnit,” Danny growled. “You spoiled the surprise. Besides, who's to say you're the one who's going to propose? What makes me the girl in this relationship?”
> 
> In which Steve and Danny have been kidnapped. Again.

They had no leads. After three months, not a single lead to point them in the direction of whoever had kidnapped them and built the dirty bomb. The knock out gas and trip wire Steve had suspected played some part had lead nowhere, mostly because they couldn't find them. When they had returned to the house there was nothing out of the ordinary. Clearly whoever had taken them and locked them in had taken the evidence, and whoever was behind the attack in the first place was smart. Very smart.

None of the bomb components, the camera, even the bunker had been able to give a clue. The bomb parts had been salvaged from various junk yards and the design didn't match anything in any database. The camera had self-destructed after Chin and Kono had found the bunker, so nothing was left of it to trace, and the bunker was a concrete box ten miles from Honolulu that had been contracted by an anonymous want ad in the paper. The land it was on belonged to an old woman who never visited the property and had no idea something had been built on it. It was the worst dead end any of them had ever encountered.

Meanwhile, cases continued to pour in.

“That's the third drug ring we've busted this month,” Danny complained loudly as they entered 5-0 headquarters, peeling out of their tactical vests. “Not to mention that human trafficking thing last month. You'd think things would have gotten quieter without Wo Fat around.”

“I guess everyone is taking advantage of the fact that he's not around to control everything anymore,” Steve shrugged, running a hand through his hair and brushing the dust out of it. He'd need to get it cut soon, he noted in the back of his mind 

“You're bleeding,” Danny said, his eyes catching on the blood running down the back of Steve's neck. He stepped closer and stood on his toes, forcing the other man to tilt his head forward so Danny could see the gash at the base of his hairline. 

“M'fine, Danno,” Steve muttered, pulling away from Danny's hands moving around his desk to retrieve his first aid kit, pressing a lump of gauze against the wound with a hiss.

“Fine, fine, fine he says,” Danny muttered as he turned away, throwing his vest on the couch that for some reason Steve had in his office, but Danny didn't in his, and sinking down next to it with a huff. “Says the man who got shot a week ago.” 

“It was just a graze, Danny,” Steve grumbled as he gracelessly fell into his desk chair, closing his eyes with a sigh.

“Just a graze,” Danny glowered. “You have ten stitches in your shoulder, Steve.”

“Hey, you two ok?” Chin asked as he stuck his head in Steve's office. He was a bit beaten up himself, and Kono was in the hospital overnight with a concussion, but otherwise the raid had been successful.

“Fine,” Steve muttered, eyes closed, gauze held to his head, skin pale and ashy. He looked the very definition of 'fine'.

“I'm less fine than him, I'll have you know, I am exhausted and traumatized, and my boyfriend has been shot, beaten up, and, I cannot prove but I suspect, stabbed, at one point or another in the last month.”

Chin chuckled, shaking his head and rubbing his face wearily. They were all exhausted after the string of cases and busts that had been keeping them in the office at nearly all hours and he didn't blame Danny for being grumpy one bit.

“Go home, both of you. Sleep,” he instructed, waving as he walked away toward their lockers, presumably to change out of the blood and dirt covered clothes he was wearing before he went home to Malia.

“Sleep, sleep is not something I'm familiar with,” Danny muttered, his head falling back against the couch. His eyes drifted shut and he must have dozed off for a few seconds because when he opened them again Steve was standing in front of him with his hand outstretched. Reluctantly, if only because it meant he had to move, Danny took it and allowed Steve to pull him up.

“Let's go home, Danno,” Steve whispered, his hand sliding up Danny's arm and around the back of his neck to pull him into a soft, tired kiss.

“I gotta call Gracie,” Danny mumbled between kisses, his arms settling around Steve's waist.

“As soon as we get home, I promise, Danno, but you have to drive,” Steve chuckled, knowing what was coming. Sure enough Danny pulled back abruptly and stared at him with wide eyes.

“Me? _Drive?_ Are you ok? Did you hit your head harder than I thought? Talk to me babe,” he said in a rush and Steve laughed.

“I'm fine, I just want to keep this gauze on a little longer,” he said softly, brushing some loose hair out of Danny's face. They were both a mess and the first priority was going to be a shower. A long one, likely with a combined six hair washings and liberal use of the soap.

“Now I'm going to worry about you all night,” Danny muttered with a put upon sigh, stepping back and taking Steve's hand. He flicked out the lights as they moved, grabbing the keys to the Camaro from the hook where he insisted they were kept because yes, he did actually occasionally need to drive his car, and he couldn't do that when Steve had forgotten the keys were in his pocket and he was halfway across the island in his truck. It happened often enough that Danny had put his foot down.

“I do know when not to push myself you know,” Steve said, smiling as he slid into the passenger seat, and spent the drive home listening to Danny rant about how he really, really didn't know when not to push himself. It was probably one of the most pleasant drives Steve had ever been on, the sound of Danny's voice lulling him to sleep.

 

* * *

 

“Ugh.” That was the first thing Steve heard when he regained consciousness. His head was throbbing, not unlike three months before when they were locked in next to a bomb. His mouth had the same papery texture and the pounding in his temple was identical. Not again was all he could think as Danny groaned again.

“Steve?” Danny asked, obviously reaching for Steve when a hand bumped his shoulder and Steve groggily reached for Danny's questing fingers.

“I'm here,” he said, still not opening his eyes.

“Again?” Danny asked, his voice muffled by something.

“Shark tank,” Steve groaned. “With deadly sharks this time.” He rolled on his side, towards the sound of Danny's voice and opened his eyes 

Danny had a black eye and his hair was a mess but otherwise he seemed unharmed. Steve's vision wasn't working too well yet, the knock out gas still trying to work through his system. He could just manage to see that they were lying close together on an old ratty mattress and this time they weren't chained together.

“Freezer,” Danny croaked as he looked around. “We're in a fucking freezer. Forget the sharks, I'm going to gut him with a blunt paring knife.”

Steve looked around as his vision slotted back into place and he found Danny was right. They were indeed in a freezer. An industrial sized freezer. The only problem was it wasn't very cold, and the thermometer on the wall ready just over 45F. If Steve was right, his brain already working overtime, he guessed that the temperature had been raised well before they were brought in so they didn't freeze before whatever sick bastard was out there got to have his fun. He thought he remembered industrial freezers usually ran at 0 or in the negative.

 “You hurt?” Steve asked quietly. He took a moment to catalogue his own body, finding nothing hurt much more than it had before. Just that morning a glance at his watch told him. The healing graze from the bullet wound stung and the cut on the back of his head from the raid the day before burned, along with his sore muscles, but he didn't seem to have acquired any new injuries. 

“I don't think so, but my face feels like it met the wrong end of a pipe,” Danny groaned, trying to sit up.

“There's a right end?” Steve asked, bemused. Danny shot him a glare and he raised his hands in surrender. “You've got a nice shiner, but I don't think it's too serious. Here.” Steve reached up and gently ran his thumb across Danny's cheek, over his eye and down his nose carefully, trying to put as little pressure as he could on the bruise and still feel the bone underneath. 

“Anything broken doc?” Danny asked, rubbing his hands together. The temperature may not have been into the immediately life threatening digits, but it was still damned cold.

“Seems fine,” Steve said, sitting up and looking around more thoroughly. Like last time there was a camera in one corner and he suspected if he tried the door he'd find it padlocked from the outside. 

“Wonder how long before the show starts,” Danny muttered, glancing down at his thin button up shirt and wishing he had put an undershirt on that morning. It had been unseasonably hot around the island for October and he hadn't wanted to sweat through another shirt before lunch time again because he was wearing multiple layers.

As if responding to his words and unseen speaker crackled to life.

“ _I must congratulate Mr. Kelly and Ms. Kalakaua for their successful efforts to stop my bomb. They cut it very close you know. You both passed out with five minutes on the clock and three minutes later they found you. I have to say I am somewhat disappointed though.”_

“What the hell do you want from us?” Danny demanded, glaring at the camera.

“ _As I said, I enjoy the sport. Again, your team has been left breadcrumbs. Again, you have a countdown. Again, you have a task that will keep you alive longer. As you see the temperature is cold, but not life threatening, yet. The room has been rigged with motion sensors. The longer you move, the more time you have before the temperature drops. Now, as I have made this task simpler, there is a catch. You can only stop the temperature from dropping for six hours. After that you can only slow it.”_

 “You're sick, you know that?” Steve yelled, now on his feet and getting in the face of the camera as he shouted at their kidnapper.

 “ _Insults will not phase me, gentlemen. Enjoy your task,”_ the voice said coldly. The speaker clicked again and Steve glanced at the thermometer. 44.9. He jumped to his feet and began pacing back and forth along the longest wall. Danny flopped back on the mattress, staring at the ceiling.

 Steve didn't speak, his training already running through all the aspects of their problem and working out a schedule. They obviously didn't need to both be moving at once and the mattress had been placed on the floor so that they didn't have to. The first rule of being locked somewhere cold; don't touch the walls or the ground directly if you could avoid it. He knew that if they traded off after half an hour and rested they could keep their movements up for six hours easily, but it was after that he was worried about. He glanced at Danny, waiting for the inevitable volcano of a rant to explode from him partner. He didn't have to wait long.

 “Are you, seriously, kidding me with this?” Danny asked, his voice raising as he spoke. “I thought it was bad enough the first time this creep grabbed us, although, obviously, I'm not completely displeased with the end result,” Danny paused to watch Steve's ass as he walked by, grinning as memories of the night before ran rampant in his brain for a few seconds. “However, that does not excuse this cruel and unusual method of torture for no apparent reason.”

 “At least the island is safe this time,” Steve pointed out. “There hasn't been a threat that could destroy all of Hawaii.”

 “True, you make a point, Steven, this time it's only us poor bastards who are going to bite the dust,” Danny scowled. “How did we get here? I don't remember a raid or anything.”

“We were on the way to work, I think,” Steve said, rubbing his still throbbing head and glancing at his watch. He'd been walking for a little over five minutes. “We crashed last night and slept through the alarm, we were late.”

“You were driving, despite my reservations since yesterday morning you got bashed in the back of the head. 

“Are you blaming me for this?” Steve grinned, looking down at Danny as he passed. Danny leaned on his elbows and watched Steve pace around the room like a caged tiger, a glint in his eye.

“Babe, by now you should know, I blame you for everything,” Danny grinned.

 

**~Hour 5~**

 

“Ok, this is just getting boring now,” Danny grumbled as he wandered in a small circle around the mattress. He was cold, he was hungry, he was grumpy, and Steve still hadn't MacGyver'ed them out. Not that he really had much of a chance with a mattress with no springs, no weapons or tools of any kind, and no ways to reach the lock or hinges of the door, both of them being on the outside.

“So when are you going to move in?” Steve asked, causing Danny to freeze, one foot out in front of him.

“Excuse me? When am I going to move in?” Danny demanded, his hands waving. “Steve, I've been practically living in your house for the last three months! And an argument could be made for a good amount of time before that.”

Steve shrugged. “It's not official though. I want to make it official, I want you to move in with me.”

“Next you'll be proposing,” Danny grumbled, his pacing resumed as he glanced over at the thermometer. 44.7. Chilly. Really chilly, but still livable. He was trying not to think about what would happen when they entered hour six and the temperature started dropping.

“I'm saving that for something special,” Steve smirked, staying positive by enjoying riling Danny up. 

“Special, special he says,” Danny ranted to the ceiling. “Trapped in a room with a bomb wasn't special enough to say 'I love you', trapped in a freezer isn't special enough for a marriage proposal, what's a guy gotta do around here?” he asked, throwing his hands up as Steve grinned.

“What, you want me to propose?” Steve chuckled.

“Yes, no, not now damnit,” Danny growled. “You spoiled the surprise. Besides, who's to say you're the one who's going to propose? What makes me the girl in this relationship?”

“Danny, being the guy who gets proposed to instead of the guy that does the proposing doesn't make you the girl,” Steve scowled. “You wearing a tie for the first year you lived here, nagging me constantly, fussing about my clothes and my food and my tendency to rush into danger, makes you the girl.” 

Danny glowered, flipping Steve off without looking at him.

“Not on camera, babe,” Steve deadpanned and Danny choked, coughing violently as he glared at Steve and his 'I just caught a nice juicy canary' expression.

“That was low,” Danny grumbled.

 “C'mon,” Steve chuckled, grabbing Danny's wrist as he walked past. “Switch.”

 “It hasn't been half an hour,” Danny protested, none the less sinking down on the mattress next to Steve.

 “You're dead on your feet, Danno, let me take a turn.”

“This isn't going to last much longer once the temperature starts dropping,” Danny said, leaning his head against Steve's shoulder. Steve cheated, raising one arm and waving it back and forth to satisfy the motion detectors while he held Danny with the other arm.

“Chin'll find us,” Steve said, nuzzling his nose into Danny's hair.

“By himself?” Danny asked with a sigh, thinking about Kono with her concussion, probably still on hospital lockdown. 

“It'll be fine,” Steve assured him, doing his best to believe it himself. “C'mere,” he mumbled, nudging Danny until he could reach the other man to kiss him deeply.

 

**~Hour 9~**

 

The temperature was down to 38.5 now and Danny couldn't feel his fingers anymore. Steve was pacing again, letting Danny rest even though he himself was about to collapse from exhaustion and cold. The fiercely protective side of him was trying to do everything it could to keep Danny alive long enough for Chin to find them and break them out.

38.4F the thermometer ticked down. He couldn't be sure but he thought the temperature had started dropping faster now as they approached the end of hour nine. Honestly he was tired of this, he didn't like being played with, like a mouse on a string, and he sure as hell didn't like that someone had dragged Danny into this. 

Steve had been wracking his brain for the last two or three hours, trying to run any connection he could to the previous kidnapping, including all the factors, the bomb, the MO, anything he could think of from his past that was similar. There were a lot of classified cases in his head to sort through and he was worried that he wouldn't even make a dent before they froze to death. Not that they would freeze to death per say. Eventually the cold would knock them out and they would just never wake up again.

Steve shook his head, trying to banish the morbid side of survival training and remain thankful that they were inside a dry box and not in water or they would have been dead hours ago. He jumped when a cold hand gripped his arm and he turned to find Danny standing behind him, teeth chattering and lips blue. 

“Switch,” Danny mumbled, hugging Steve close before shooing him toward the mattress and beginning his circuit around the room.

 

**~Hour 11~**

 

The thermometer had passed 31.6 degrees and Steve had pulled Danny down onto the mattress with him, enveloping the smaller man in his arms.

 “What're you doing, Steve?” Danny asked, shivering violently.

 “It's below freezing, you have to stop moving or you'll use up what little heat you have left up too quickly,” Steve managed through his chattering teeth.

“Are we going to freeze to death?” Danny mumbled against Steve's collarbone and Steve tighten his arms. 

“You won't feel anything, Danno,” Steve whispered. “You'll just fall asleep,” he said softly against Danny's hair, fighting tears that would freeze the moment they left his eyes. He looked up to the thermometer and saw it was down to 29.0.

“I'm scared,” Danny managed, his frozen fingers clutching Steve tightly.

“Don't be, Danny, I'm right here. I'm not leaving you.”

Danny nodded, his eyes slipping shut as he passed out and Steve pulled him even closer, rocking back and forth as he fought the darkness creeping up on him. Only a few minutes later he succumbed to the cold as well.

 

* * *

 

“This way!” Chin shouted, directing the dozen HPD officers towards the trail the search dog had picked up. The German shepherd was pulling them toward an abandoned building on the edge of the docks, followed closely by Chin and a slightly bruised Kono, as his handler tried to keep the dog from breaking free.

“Here!” the officer shouted when the dog stopped and scrabbled at a door, howling loudly. 

“Get me some bolt cutters!” Chin called but there wasn't time. Kono pushed him out of the way and shot the lock three times, dragging the door open, her eyes on the external thermometer that read -5 degrees f.

“Paramedics, now!” she screamed, running into the freezer to Steve and Danny, wrapped around each other tightly, both blue and icy cold to the touch.

“I've got no pulse on either of them,” one of the medics said while the other attached leads to both as well as he could reach. “We've got to get them warm, but slowly. If their core temp is brought up too fast it could kill them. We can't move them like this. Can we turn this thing up? Just a few degrees, not enough to shock them.”

Chin nodded, running back outside to the control pad and quickly bringing up the commands, hacking through the remote control on it in seconds and raising the temperature up to 10 degrees. For almost half an hour the medics carefully worked on Steve and Danny, wrapping them in a space blanket and tucking heat pads near their hands and feet until their core temperatures went from 85 back up to 92, while Chin slowly brought the freezer up to 50 degrees.

As soon as the monitors registered a pulse the paramedics directed the HPD to carry the mattress out and put the whole thing in the ambulance, leaving their stretcher behind. Kono hopped in with them and they sped toward the hospital where they were met by a team of doctors who immediately peeled the men apart and started warm saline IV's and more blankets to bring their temperatures up the rest of the way, checking their vitals.

Kono was still shaking when Chin made it to the hospital a few minutes later and she collapsed against him, crying, as they wheeled Steve and Danny away to the ICU.

 “They don't know when they'll wake up,” she whispered, grateful for her cousin's strong hold. Her head was spinning again and she wanted to throw up. 

“Do we need to check you back in?” he asked, noticing her tight grip on him as she squeezed her eyes shut. She shook her head carefully.

“I'm ok. I just hope they will be too,” she whispered.

“They're strong, cuz, they'll be fine,” Chin assured her, praying to all the Hawaiian gods that he spoke the truth.

 

* * *

 

 

“I fucking hate hospitals,” Danny groaned before he even opened his eyes. After a moment and a deep breath he peeled back his eyelids and found Rachel's worried face hovering over him. “Hey,” he managed.

“Hi,” she said softly, smiling at him. “You nearly froze to death, Danny. In Hawaii of all places,” she laughed, a chuckle verging a little towards hysterical. “Whatever am I going to tell Grace?”

“Tell her not to tick off any sociopaths,” Danny grinned weakly. “Steve?”

Rachel's smile softened again and she tilted her chin. Danny looked to his right and saw Steve asleep in the bed next to him. They were in a larger room than after their last ordeal and Danny was suddenly worried that the hospital had reserved a room for them. Glancing down he found his hand entwined with Steve's and he sighed in relief. Steve was warm.

“Thank god,” Danny mumbled. “Don't supposed we caught the guy?” Rachel shook her head sadly.

“Chin said he had a lead, but it went dead. I'm sorry Danny.”

“Hey, hey, don't be sorry, just bring my monkey in here to see me, will you?” he grinned, gripping Rachel's hand tightly and smiling at her gratefully. His ex-wife nodded, wiping a few tears from her eyes and left the room. 

“Danno?”

Danny whipped his head around to look at Steve who was blinking blearily, trying to focus.

 “I'm here, babe, we're ok,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against Steve's.

“Move in with me?” Steve croaked with a weak smile and Danny burst out laughing, refusing to explain to Grace when Rachel deposited the girl on the bed and she immediately snuggled between the two of them.

“Later, monkey,” he whispered into her hair, sharing a smirk with Rachel and nodding to Chin and Kono who appeared behind her in the doorway. “Thank you,” he said quietly as the rest of his team piled into the room, Kono sitting on Steve's other side and taking the hand with the IV carefully. He was sound asleep again and Danny sighed, letting his own eyes drift shut as he rested his head against Steve's shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't be bothered to get overly critical on cold weather and hypothermia so I improvised with what I know. Please forgive me if it's a bit wack, call it creative license.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trapped underground and separated Steve and Danny have ten hours before their air is cut off. They're also starting to get pretty pissed off that whoever is kidnapping them keeps doing so under the noses of the watchful HPD.

“Steve? Steve where are you?” Danny called, his voice growing louder and more panicked when Steve didn't answer. He couldn't see anything, even though he blinked furiously. He could smell dirt and stale air and there was space around him, but he knew almost at once that he had been buried alive and his claustrophobia immediately set in. He scrabbled around the floor, finding an edge and following it around. The hole was a circle, about seven feet across, five feet high, he couldn't stand up, and after he had felt every inch of the floor he the came to the worst realization of his life. Steve wasn't with him. He was alone.

Suddenly something buzzed and he whipped around, finding a small bag hanging from one wall. Inside a cell phone buzzed, glowing slightly.

“Hello?” he said desperately when he managed to hit the answer button.

“ _Detective, so nice to speak to you again,”_ the same disembodied voice chuckled.

“You son of a bitch,” Danny growled. “What have you done with Steve?”

“ _Don't worry, detective, Commander McGarrett hasn't been harmed. You will speak with him soon. In the bag you will find two solar batteries, a bottle of water and one energy bar. I suggest you use them wisely. You will have fresh air for ten hours, after that, I suggest you conserve your oxygen. Good luck, detective.”_

“Wait!” Danny shouted, but the phone had already gone dead. He checked it for anything, pictures, call logs, contacts. There as nothing, not even any service once the call had dropped. Then the phone rang again.

“Listen to me you son of a bitch!” Danny shouted into the phone, pausing when he heard a croak.

“ _Danno...”_

“Steve? Jesus, Steve, where are you, are you ok?” Danny asked quickly.

“ _Head hurts,”_ Steve mumbled. _“Dark. Came to with a phone in my hand. That bastard called me, said...Danno are you ok?”_

“Yeah, yeah I'm ok, Steve. I'm in a room, about seven feet across, can't stand up straight, having one hell of a panic attack here, it's so dark,” Danny almost whimpered. Almost.

“ _It's the same here. I don't know what happened but I've got a lump on my skull. Guess knock out gas got old.”_

“Steve, he threatened to cut off the air. I can't, Steve, I can't be in here. I'm going to suffocate and die underground like a damned rat in a trap. I don't want to die down here, Steve, I don't want to die down here,” he managed, realizing he was sobbing against the phone.

“ _Danny, Danny, breath,”_ Steve said, sounding a little clearer, like some of the haze had worn off. _“I'm right here, Danny, I got you, I promise. Breath with me, come on.”_

“God, Steve,” Danny whimpered, cursing his claustrophobia in any language he could think of, every insult he had ever learned from his extensive Irish family and from television.

“ _It's ok, we're going to be ok,”_ Steve promised and Danny blacked out from hyperventilation.

* * *

 

Steve gave up calling for Danny through the phone after a minute or two, figuring that the other man had passed out. Instead he used the light from the phone to search his surroundings. He found the same as Danny, a circular room seven feet across, five feet high. While Danny would be stooped, Steve was bent double when he tried to stand. He found a bag with two battery packs, water and an energy bar. He looked up a the ceiling and dug his fingers into the earth, trying to work some of it loose in the hopes of digging out. After less than an inch he was met with sturdy chicken wire in the earth, holding the shape of the dome.

Taking a deep breath Steve started to dig while he waited for Danny to wake up, the phone on speaker in the breast pocket of his shirt. Slowly he uncovered chicken wire around the whole dome, perfectly creating the shape of an upside down bowl. He was just about to give up hope on there being any way past it, without potentially collapsing the while thing, when his fingers sank deep into freshly dug earth. After a few minutes of digging he had the beginnings of a tunnel about two feet square, left by a hole in the chicken wire. He kept digging, still listening for Danny. Finally sounds of his partner stirring started to come through the speaker and he sat back, pulling the phone from his pocket with dusty hands.

“Danny? Can you hear me?” Steve called, hoping Danny would remain calm for at least a few minutes when he came round.

“ _Yeah, Steve, I'm here,”_ Danny coughed. _“What happened?”_

“You blacked out buddy, I was worried,” Steve smiled, relieved to hear Danny calmly speaking.

“ _How long was I out?”_

“About an hour,” Steve told him, looking at his watch.

“ _We still trapped?”_

“Yeah, but Danny, listen to me, I found a tunnel. I don't know where it goes, but we're under a dome of earth and chicken wire, there's no way through except in one small spot. I can just fit into it and I'm trying to dig it out.”

“ _Good, that's good,”_ Danny said after a pause. Steve could hear him taking a deep rattling breath before he shuffled around. _“What can I do?”_

Steve sighed in relief, glad that Danny's panic was under control, at least for the moment. “I want you to start looking and see if you can find one where you are. It's right at floor level, about two feet high. If I'm right you should have a gap too.”

“ _Ok,”_ Danny said quietly, the phone rustling as he tucked it into his pocked. Steve did the same and continued digging, comforted by the muffled sounds of Danny moving around.

**~Hour 3~**

Danny groaned as he pushed another pile of dirt out of the way of the hole he was slowly digging in the wall. Just as Steve had said there was a two by two hole in the chicken wire, just enough for a person to squeeze very tightly in. So far Danny had dug as far as he could reach without crawling in and he was sitting back, having a sip of water when Steve's voice reached him through the speaker phone.

“ _Danno, I think I hit the other side,”_ Steve said triumphantly. _“I'm going to try and get through.”_

Before Danny could protest the earth in his tunnel shifted and slowly Steve's head appeared, covered in dirt and grime, followed by his shoulders and the rest of him, tumbling ungracefully onto the ground near Danny's feet.

“Hey, superseal,” Danny said, his voice tainted with disappointment. As relieved as he was to have Steve back in the same space, he was really hoping the tunnel had been an exit. Steve looked up at him with much the same expression on his face before he crawled forward and draped himself across Danny's lap, using his stomach for a pillow.

“I love you,” Steve said, his exhaustion evident. “But we have got to stop meeting like this.” Danny laughed loudly, too surprised by Steve's dry humor to do anything else. He shook his head, dragging his hand through Steve's filthy hair.

“I don't disagree, I mean a regular date once in a while would be nice. You know, you, me, maybe Gracie, pizza, shave ice, a movie,” Danny chuckled. Steve snorted, absently rubbing his nose against Danny's stomach.

“You know, maybe we should just relax, I mean, all we have to do is sit here and conserve oxygen. No bomb wired to a microphone, no thermostat wired to a motion detector, best of all, no camera.”

“Steve, if you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, you're insane. What part of what you literally just said do you not understand? Conserve oxygen,” Danny grumbled. Steve just shrugged, his arms tightening around Danny.

“I've been thinking,” he said after a while, causing Danny to break out of the swirl of morbid thoughts circling through his head.

“Yeah? That's dangerous,” Danny joked. Steve pinched the first thing he could reach, Danny's thigh, causing him to jump.

“Shut up, Danno, I've been trying to figure out who keeps kidnapping us and locking us in stupid situations.”

“You think it's someone we put away?”

“Or someone I had contact with while I was in the Navy. It's a long list of people I pissed off or took down. I've been trying to eliminate the ones that are dead or never knew who was involved in taking them out, but it's still a long list,” Steve mumbled.

“No luck?” Danny asked, his hand still playing with Steve's hair.

“My list has got to be two hundred people long, I don't even know where to start to be honest,” Steve grumbled, rolling on his back next to Danny, staring blankly at the dark ceiling.

“I made a list too but it is significantly shorter than two hundred. Maybe like, twenty. And they're all Jersey Mafia.”

“What did you do to piss off the Mafia?” Steve asked with a raised eyebrow that Danny couldn't see.

“Arrested a few of them,” Danny shrugged, sinking to the floor next to Steve, their shoulders brushing.

“Skills,” Steve chuckled, reaching for Danny's hand and holding it tightly.

**~Hour 7~**

“Hey,” Steve mumbled, his hand brushing Danny's hair as Danny stirred.

“We fall asleep?” Danny mumbled, shifting on his Steve shaped pillow to get more comfortable. The arm he was laying on was numb and it was still dark, but he didn't really care.

“Yeah. Been about three hours I think,” Steve said, knocking the light button on his watch to check the time.

“Any brilliant revelations while you were out? A clue to who is doing this?” Danny, asked, rubbing his eyes with the cleanest part of his hand he could find, hard when they were caked in dirt.

“Not a clue,” Steve sighed. “Obviously whoever is behind this isn't out to kill us immediately. It's been close, but they've left clues that led Chin and Kono to us in time.”

“Just. Remember that bomb only had two minutes on it when they found us finally. If we had passed out a few minutes before we did, boom, no more island,” Danny pointed out. “It would take skills beyond what I have ever seen to pull that off, so I'm going to go with yes, they're trying to kill us, just they have several back up plans if they fail.”

“I suppose,” Steve consented. “But I've also been wondering about a pattern. Bomb, freezer, buried...it's elemental.”

“Elemental? Really, that's what you're going with?” Danny asked incredulously.

“Think about it,” Steve said, leaning up on one elbow to look at Danny through the darkness, the light from one of the phone screens bringing a small amount of illumination to the hole. “We've seen all kinds of sociopaths both on and off the job. What if this person is trying to use elements to kill us?”

“And this is going to help us catch them how?” Danny asked, frown in place as he waved one hand toward the ceiling. Steve frowned then shook his head.

“I dunno, Danny, but any clue, however remote, might be something we can use,” he said quietly.

“Pointless, totally pointless.”

“Damnit, Danny, why am I always the one trying to stay positive here? It's like you give up half way in and just want to roll over and die!” Steve shouted, unable to stand anymore of Danny's pessimism.

“We're buried alive, Steve, buried ALIVE! What do you want me to say, it's all sunshine and roses? You want to know the talk I had to have with Gracie after the bomb? I had to tell my little girl that she had to be brave, because we hadn't caught the guy and he might try again. She's twelve years old, Steve, and I had to tell her that she had to be brave in case I died!”

“Danny,” Steve tried, reaching a hand out that Danny batted away.

“And you know what else? You know what, she understood. That's how much crap I have brought into my baby girls life that she understood, and she asked if you would protect me and Steve, what could I tell her except that whoever was after me was after you too and that she might wake up one morning and we would both be gone!”

“Danny, calm down,” Steve said quietly, catching Danny's hands and holding him steady.

“I had to tell my little girl that I might die,” Danny sobbed. “I told her we might both die, and that she had to be brave.”

“She is brave, Danny, she's the bravest kid I know because she's you, she's a part of you. She's Rachel's attitude and your stubbornness all rolled into one little package that could take out a tank if it got in her way,” he said, his mouth pressed against Danny's hair as he held the other man tightly. “We'll get through this, just like last time. We will get out, I promise, Danno, I promise.”

* * *

 

“This is getting beyond irritating,” Kono growled, sifting through stacks of pictures.

“You're telling me,” Chin sighed. “They've got a protection detail on them, fifteen HPD officers, trackers in their phones, their cars, I even considered putting a tracer in Danny's shoes. They're not supposed to be able to just vanish.”

“You worried we won't find them?” Kono asked after a while, her voice shaky. Chin cracked a smile.

“Nah, they're tough as nails. We'll find 'em. Here, take a look at this.” He slid a computer across the table to her.

“That's Danny's car,” Kono said with surprise, noting that the car was dumped near the Kaena point trailhead. “What do you think we're looking at this time?”

“Have you ever read Dan Brown?” Chin asked, pulling something up on the big screen.

“The Da Vinci guy?” Kono asked, confused.

“The second book, Angels and Demons, the killer is using the four elements to kill cardinals. Malia likes the movie,” he shrugged in response to Kono's face. “I'm wondering if there's some kind of pattern here. The first time, they were trapped with a bomb, so fire. Last time, a freezer, air? If the car isn't a decoy, this could be earth...they could be buried somewhere up near Kaena.”

“I'll make a call, get a chopper in here with ground penetrating radar,” Kono nodded, grinning. “What are we at?”

“Nine hours and change,” Chin said, grabbing his phone and gun as he headed for the door, Kono on his heels.

“This still doesn't solve who's doing this,” she pointed out. Chin shrugged.

“We've got no leads, what else are we supposed to do? At least this way we'll find Steve and Danny, again, and maybe a clue or two. And I'm doubling their protection detail.”

Kono rolled her eyes, following her cousin with a grin.

**~Hour 11.5~**

“Air is going to start getting thin in here,” Danny pointed out, holding Steve's wrist in front of his eyes as he looked at Steve's watch. Steve just shrugged.

“I'm not worried yet. We've got the air in here and when it gets too stale we can always crawl through to my side. There'll be a few more hours of fresher air.”

“You're surprisingly calm for being buried alive,” Danny muttered, feeling the stirrings of panic starting in his stomach again as he thought about the fact that they were trapped underground.

“The best thing I can do for you is be calm,” Steve shrugged. “I know you hate this, I know how hard it is for you.”

Danny nodded, edging a little closer to Steve. “I'm glad you got through. I'd probably be blacked out from hyperventilation again if you hadn't,” he admitted.

“I love you,” Steve whispered against his ear. “Nothing in the world is going to change that, Danny, even if you think its all my fault.”

Danny chuckled. “It's not your fault, babe, it's not, I'm sorry I go off on you, but I react badly when I'm scared.”

“I hadn't noticed,” Steve teased and Danny sighed.

“I hate being in small spaces and I really hate not being able to see,” Danny mumbled, his arm thrown over his eyes.

“I know, Danno, it's ok,” Steve said softly.

Suddenly they heard a rumbling and felt the earth shaking. Danny instinctively tightened his grip on Steve as they both sat up.

“It's coming from the other side,” Steve said, tilting his head to listen. They could hear shouting and feel something heavy moving around, but it was over the original hole Steve had been in, not the one they were in now.

“You think thats a rescue?” Danny asked, just as Chin's voice floated to them. Steve grinned.

“I think it's a pretty safe bet,” he nodded. “We should back up,” he said, scooting back against the far wall away from the noise. Danny followed him, pressing his back against the wall as the rumbling grew louder. Moments later an earth mover broke through the top of the dome, ripping the chicken wire light it was tissue paper and allowing the sunlight to flood the small hole.

Danny covered his eyes against the harsh light, one hand reaching for Steve.

“I got them!” Chin shouted and a few seconds later he was in the hole, looking them over quickly for any signs of injury. “You two alright?” he asked, laying a hand on each of their shoulders.

“Can't see,” Danny mumbled, the hand not over his eyes reaching to grip Chin's wrist, taking comfort in someone else's presence.

“We'll get you out of here in a minute,” Chin assured them. “It's almost sunset, it won't be bright much longer.”

They both nodded and waited for the rescue workers to clear a hole big enough to pull them all out and to the waiting ambulances. An hour later after the sun had set, they were declared clear of any problems and told to go home, sleep, and drink as much water as they could, unless they wanted to be admitted to the hospital for IV rehydration. Both, unsurprisingly, declined, and Kono drove them home.

“This bozo is getting worse at what he does,” Danny commented on the way, squinting as he tried to dial Grace on his phone, which he had been reunited with thanks to their driver.

“How's that?” Kono asked, glancing in the rearview mirror at Danny curled on the back seat.

“No hospital time,” he said as the phone connected and he held it to his ear, face immediately lighting up when he heard Grace's voice.

“How was it down there?” Kono asked quietly while Danny was distracted. In the passenger seat Steve shrugged, gaze steady on the city passing them by in the dark.

“Not as bad as last time, obviously, but you know Danny's claustrophobic. Being trapped in the dark really go to him.”

“Harsh,” Kono muttered. “He ok?”

Steve glanced back at Danny, curled around himself with the phone pressed to his ear, grinning widely.

“He'll be fine,” Steve sighed. “It may take a while, but he'll be fine. Provided we can catch this guy.”

“We got your back, boss,” Kono grinned her ' _be afraid of me or I will kill you just because_ ' grin.

“Thanks, Kono,” Steve managed to smile, holding the door for Danny when they pulled up to the house. He was still on the phone but Steve didn't mind, especially when Danny passed the phone to him so Grace could say hello.

“Hi, Gracie,” Steve said softly into the phone, his hand on the back of Danny's neck as the other man latched his arms around Steve's waist while they stood in the entry way.

 _“Uncle Steve, you ok?”_ Grace asked, concern evident in her voice. Danny hadn't told her specifics but he had mentioned they'd had a bad day, so naturally she was worried.

“Just fine, Gracie,” he assured her, running his hand through Danny's hair, resting his chin on top of Danny's head.

_“Good. Daddy sounded really tired, you should probably sleep.”_

Steve chuckled at how much of a mother hen she already was at twelve, momentarily worried what might happen when she hit the teen years. She'd either become a master criminal or start saving the world, one orphan at a time.

“Will do,” he told the little girl fondly, hanging up after she had told him she loved both him and Danny. He set the phone aside and wrapped both his arms around Danny and they both signed.

“I need a shower,” Danny mumbled and Steve nodded.

“We should go for a swim first,” he yawned. “Or a dip. It'll clean the mud off better.”

“Or, you freakish marine animal, we could use the outdoor shower. It's made for dirt,” Danny pointed out as he tugged Steve toward the back door and aforementioned outdoor shower.

By the time they rinsed off Steve was almost asleep on his feet, with Danny grumbling at him non-stop, even when Steve pointed out that Danny'd had more than one nap while they were underground, for which Danny smacked him on the arm.

“Passing out, does not count as a nap, Steven,” he grumbled as he shoved the taller man into the bed and collapsed next to him. “Chin's going to up our protection detail again,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face.

Steve snorted, rolling over and promptly using Danny's chest as a pillow, tangling their bare legs together. “This person is smart, they must have a network. I don't know if it's going to help.”

“It better,” Danny mumbled, yawning. “I don't want to have that conversation with Gracie again.”

“I know, Danny,” Steve managed as he fell asleep. Danny was already out.

Outside, Kono sat in a surveillance van with three HPD and four more marked and unmarked cars scattered along the road. She also had a SWAT team patrolling the waterline behind Steve's house. No way was anyone grabbing them again on her watch.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trapped in a box slowly filling with water this looks like it could be the end for Steve and Danny...

“ _Welcome back. I once again must congratulate your teammates on coming to your rescue with only moments to spare. They are smarter than I gave them credit for.”_

“This is getting really old,” Steve groaned as he sat up, checking on Danny who was still out cold. How in the hell had they gotten caught again? There were more than twenty HPD cops on or around them at all times, there was no way they should have gotten grabbed. Then he remembered he had been out for a swim when something grabbed him around the waist and dragged him down. That didn't explain Danny, but here he was.

“ _No matter. You will not find me, you will not catch me. You will not live to see another sunset. Goodbye, commander.”_

Steve rubbed his head, looking around for a camera and finding none. They were in a concrete box, similar to the first, but this was a different shape. It was smaller, in size with much higher walls, maybe fifteen feet. There was a small slot at the top of one wall, just big enough to fit a hand in, and next to it a single light that glowed an eerie blue. As Steve squinted at the slot, water began to pour from it, not fast, but not a few drops a minute either. He blanched, realizing what was happening. They were trapped in a watertight box that was slowly going to flood and drown them.

“Danny, Danny, wake up,” Steve said desperately, shanking Danny's shoulder. Danny was laying on a concrete bench build into the wall, unconscious but as far as Steve could tell, uninjured. He was fully dressed, but damp, making Steve wonder if he had run into the water when Steve was dragged under. Glancing down Steve realized he was still in only his swim trunks from that morning. Running his hands through his hair, Steve paced.

Finally, almost half an hour later Danny groaned and sat up slowly.

“What happened this time?” he asked, rubbing his head. Steve immediately went to check him more closely for injuries, relieved when he found none.

“Someone grabbed me while I was swimming this morning, out in the water. They must have gotten you when you ran in after me,” he said, the only explanation I had.

“You went under, like a shark got you,” Danny remembered, shuddering. “Where are we?”

“Tank.”

“Water?”

“Yeah,” Steve whispered, trying not to let his voice betray his fear.

“Time?”

“We've been gone about three hours. Time until we're supposed to die was unspecified.

Danny sighed. “Guess they're getting serious finally.” Steve just stared at him incredulously.

“You think those other attempts weren't serious?” he asked, his face pinched.

“Not really,” Danny shrugged. “I think that was someone playing with us. I think this one's it, Steve, I think this time we're not getting out, even with our 1 in 10,000,000 odds,” Danny said gently. Steve shook his head, returning to pacing the room.

“I'm not giving up,” Steve said, knocking on the walls, looking for any way out. Danny watched the water trickling down the wall from the hole near the ceiling and sighed.

“Ok. Ok,” he said, running his hands across his face. “So, in that case, tell me what's going to happen when we get out of here, hm?”

“What's going to happen? What's going to happen is I'm going to find whoever has kidnapped us, four times now, and I am going to destroy them,” Steve growled, pacing around the room, his bare feet splashing in the inch of water on the floor.

“Ok, and after that? When all this is settled, and I've finished moving my stuff in, then what?”

Steve sighed, pausing and shaking his head. He took a deep breath, trying to pull himself together. Danny was the claustrophobic one and Steve was the SEAL. He shouldn't be the one that was bothered by the thought of drowning. He'd had his fear of drowning drilled out of him years ago, and yet, he was terrified.

“Steve, come on, talk to me,” Danny said, reaching for Steve and tugging on his wrist. Steve bit his lip and nodded, sinking down next to Danny on the bench.

“Alright, when we get out of here, we're moving you in and sending your landlord to jail for every violation I can pin on him.” Danny snorted but didn't interrupt.

“Then,” Steve continued, his eyes trained on the water dripping from the wall. “We're going on vacation. Somewhere that isn't Hawaii or a tropical island, I know how you hate the sun and water and everything nice.”

“Hey, come on, I don't hate sun,” Danny protested and Steve grinned.

“I was thinking we could go to France or something, maybe go to one of those cushy resorts up un the Alps.”

“The Alps, Steven, really?”

Steve shrugged. “I would say a beach down south but that wouldn't be much of a change of scenery.”

Danny sighed, shaking his head as he leaned against Steve. “Romance is lost on you, you know that right?”

“So you think that two first class tickets to France, where we check into the honeymoon suite of an exclusive resort, live on room service for two weeks, get any complementary spa treatments we want, have our own personal Jacuzzi overlooking the mountains, and a king sized bed with memory foam, goose feather pillows and silk sheets isn't romantic?”

Danny leaned away so he could take a good look at Steve, noting that he was wearing the patented 'Steve McGarrett, dopey in-love' face that Danny loved so much and Danny smiled softly.

“You've really been looking into this huh?” he asked, his grin widening. Steve shrugged.

“Well yeah, I mean, I figure I ought to start looking. I am planning on proposing someday and we need a honeymoon plan.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I hate to burst your bubble here, Steve,” he chuckled, laying on hand on the back of Steve's neck and pulling him close. “But will you marry me?”

Steve sucked in a breath and then grinned, shaking his head. “You did that on purpose, you just didn't want to be the one who got proposed to,” he accused.

“Will you shut up and answer the question?” Danny snapped and Steve raised an eyebrow. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, Danny, yeah I'll marry you, on one condition.”

“Oh, condition, and what is that?” Danny demanded over the giddy feeling of joy rising in his stomach.

“Dibbs on Kono as best man,” Steve grinned.

“No fair,” Danny grumbled, pulling Steve into a deep kiss, intent leaving the rest of the talking for later when they weren't slowly being drowned in a concrete box. Also he thought maybe kissing Steve would give him some inspiration on how to get to the hatch in the ceiling before they were almost out of space to breath, not that it looked like it could open from the inside, but he had to hope.

By the second hour the water was up to their knees. Clearly the fun really was over and they were meant to be dead, or they would have more time. If Steve had calculated right they only had about four or five hours left before the water would fill the room and they would drown. It should have been longer than that, but the rate the water was pouring in was accelerating and it had risen about two feet in an hour. Danny had discarded his shoes and soggy jeans, so there would be less to weigh him down when they had to start treading water, but the problems would start when the water reached the ceiling and they ran out of air.

By the third it had risen all the way to Danny's chest and suddenly the water coming in slowed again.

“So...” Danny mumbled, floating in one corner, hit feet just touching the ground enough to keep him upright, but without any real effort.

“So?” Steve asked over his shoulder, not really paying attention. He was trying to reach the hatch above them, even though it was still several feet out of his reach.

“I guess they still want us suffering, or they wouldn't turn the water down to drag it out.”

“Could be Chin and Kono,” Steve pointed out. “Maybe they just can't get the hatch open but they can turn the water off.”

“Maybe,” Danny muttered.

“Love you,” Steve whispered, closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall, one hand gripping Danny's tightly. 

“Love you too, babe,” Danny said just as quietly, eyes locked on the hatch door.

**~Hour 4~**

 

“You know, I'm glad we're together now,” Danny said, eyeing the water around him. “This would be much more awkward if we weren't.”

Steve managed a chuckle, tightening his arms around Danny. The water had reached Danny's chin, and Steve had hoisted him up so they had a while before either of them had to thread water. Danny had his arms around Steve's neck and had his head tucked against Steve's neck, his eyes closed as he floated.

 

**~Hour 5~**

“How much longer do you think we have?” Danny asked, staring up at the hatch, drawing ever nearer as the water level rose.

Steve glanced up, then at the water around them, then at the water coming in from the corner. He swallowed. By his calculations, and the fact that the water had sped up from a trickle to a small stream, he guessed they only had about half an hour left.

“Maybe thirty minutes,” he whispered quietly, pulling Danny closer as he kicked his legs to keep them both afloat. “Maybe less. The water sped up again.”

“Yeah,” Danny said softly. “I know.

“You got anything to say, now might be a good time,” Steve said quietly. Danny sighed.

“I really don't want to go there, but...I guess I probably should get it over with.”

“You don't have to,” Steve assured him, a few things twisting through his mind that he wasn't sure he wanted to say, even under the circumstances.

“I'm sorry I punched you during our first case,” Danny sighed, tightening his grip on Steve, who looked down at him.

“I'm not,” Steve said immediately, causing Danny to look up at him with a raised eyebrow. “That's how I knew we'd work. You wouldn't just take my shit.”

“If only 'not taking your shit' had become 'you doing less shit',” Danny complained, and Steve chuckled.

“Believe it or not, compared to the Navy, I toned it down a bunch,” Steve said, receiving the disbelief he expected.

“I won't even ask,” Danny shook his head, glancing up at a clunking sound just inches above them. “You think that's rescue, or murdered?” he asked. Steve shrugged.

“Either way...” he said, looking back at Danny. “I know it took me a long time to admit it, but I've been in love with you since that day on the hike.”

“The one where you fell off a cliff and broke your arm in the process of discovering a dead body?” Danny asked, his voice deadly calm.

“That's the one,” Steve nodded. He could see hurricane Danny building up even as the noises overhead continued and the light flickered as the water touched it.

“That was three years ago, Steve!” Danny shouted and Steve shrugged.

“I've got social problems, what do you want from me Danny?”

The hatch spun as Danny glared. “This isn't over.”

“Unless we're dead,” Steve muttered, but the door pulled open to reveal one grinning Chin Ho Kelly.

“Not over,” Danny muttered.

“Hey,” Chin peered down at them through the hatch.

“You're getting faster at this,” Danny grinned, reaching a hand up so Chin could haul him out, suddenly as happy as could be.

“Our perp slipped up, led us right to you,” Chin said happily as Steve hoisted himself out, blinking in the sunlight.

“You catch them this time?” he asked, shaking the water out of his hair and accepting the towel Kono handed him. She shared a look with her cousin.

“We should get you guys checked out first,” Chin said, waving a paramedic over.

“No, we're fine, Chin, tell us you got the guy,” Steve said angrily, waving away the paramedic.

“We did. But you need to go home and get cleaned up, they're not going anywhere.”

Steve looked like he was about to blow as gasket so Danny grabbed his arm and pulled him away. “Come on, babe, lets go get cleaned up then we can go into the office.”

“Danny...”

“Come on, lets go. We need to get out of here and decompress, you need to clear your head,” Danny said softly. He had seen how badly Steve had been affected by being trapped in the box as it slowly filled with water. He knew Steve was messed up by the fact that he was a SEAL and he had been more affected by their last ordeal then Danny.

Steve, ground his teeth and nodded finally, letting Danny pull him away. They both waved off the paramedics, knowing they were both fine, a little waterlogged, but they had only been in the water a couple hours and it was warm so there weren't likely to be any issues.

Kono appeared and tossed Danny his car keys, pointing to the Camero sitting towards the edge of the scene, waiting for them. He nodded his thanks to her, steering Steve to the passenger door, not sure the other man even noticed what was going on.

The drive back to the house was silent, Steve spending the whole time staring blankly out the window his mind whirling thorough all the what ifs that could have happened.

* * *

 

“Hey, you good?” Chin asked when Steve and Danny stormed into the holding area the next morning, instinctively moving to black the door to interrogation. He wasn't sure he wanted Steve to just bust right in and find the person on the other side, not with the look on his face.

“Yeah, we're good, what did you want to tell us?” Steve asked, waving away Chin's concern.

“So, we caught the guy that was doing this,” Chin said, arms crossed, leaning against the door to the interrogation room.

“Well?” Steve said impatiently after a moment of silence. “Who was it?”

“You're not gonna like this, but they slipped up and we got them finally. Admitted to everything on tape already, the prosecutor is coming by in an hour for the signed statement and arraignment is set for 9am tomorrow,” Chin continued, not moving.

“Chin, come on, what's the big secret?” Danny asked, waving towards the observation room where Kono stood guard so they couldn't see through the two way mirror. Chin glanced back and forth between them then sighed, stepping aside.

“Please remember, I warned you.”

Steve nodded, not really caring as he passed Chin and opened the door. He stepped inside and froze, his hand still on the door nob, Danny right behind him but unable to see past Steve's broad shoulders. Finally a single word emerged from Steve's mouth in a hoarse croak.

“Catherine?”

* * *

“Are you serious right now?” Danny demanded, running his hands through his hair. Chin shrugged.

“I wish I was kidding. I intercepted a call to one of the goons that grabbed you. They got sloppy this time when they did, someone saw and reported it. We tracked them down and tapped their phones, and he was calling around trying to find the boss. Finally the boss calls him and says his payment is on the way. Traced the call, bust into a hotel room in Waikiki and there is Catherine, phone still in hand,” he explained and Danny shook his head.

“I can't believe it,” he muttered, watching Steve shouting at Catherine on the other side of the glass. The sound to the interrogation room was off and Danny didn't really want to know what Steve was saying to her, but he did have a few words of his own he wanted to get in before he helped Steve dismember her and dump her body in a lagoon.

“She say anything about why?” he asked the cousins, who shrugged.

“We called psych in here,” Kono said quietly. “I think she's lost touch with reality somehow. Some of the stuff she was saying, it wasn't normal. She thinks she and Steve are still dating.”

“Wow,” Danny said, turning to look through the window at Catherine, who looked worse for the wear after a night in holding. Her hair was tangled and there was a bruise around one eye that he suspected Kono had something to do with. “From what I understand the term dating was always used very loosely with those two, and that it was over years ago.”

Chin shrugged. “That's what we thought. I guess she thought otherwise.”

On the other side of the glass voices raised and Danny could feel the shouting reverberate through the concrete it was so loud, but there wasn't a sound. Steve looked like he wanted to hit Catherine himself, then he turned and stormed out of the interrogation room and upstairs to his office before Danny could catch up with him.

“Hey, hey Steve, what's wrong?” Danny asked, resting a hand on the small of Steve's back and stilling him as he paced the length of the room. Steve turned and pressed his forehead against Danny's, his eyes closed as he took a deep breath. He could easily see Steve was rattled beyond what would be obvious.

“I should have known. I should have seen it.”

“Seen what, Catherine? How the hell were you going to see that, Steve?” Danny demanded, wrapping his arms around Steve.

“Her favorite book. Her favorite book is Angels and Demons.”

“The one where the crazy guy is killing people...with the elements,” Danny finished, understanding. He nodded, leaning against Steve heavily. “You couldn't have known.”

“She's being taken back to the mainland for court martial and psychiatric evaluation. They're going to lock her up for years for this,” Steve said, his voice broken.

“I know that tone, don't you dare even try to think any of this was your fault,” Danny said roughly, his hands sliding up to grip Steve's face and for the other man to open his eyes and look at him. “It's not your fault,” he said again and Steve nodded minutely, his eyes filled with torment.

“I love you, Danno,” he whispered.

“I love you too, Steve, now lets go home. We have a wedding to plan.” Just as Danny hoped, it pulled a laugh out of Steve and together they left the office, hand in hand as the sun set behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted this chapter to be better than this but then I started struggling so I'm not entirely happy. >< Only one to go though.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Danny finally get their honeymoon, though not without some issues, as per normal.

“So, this is romantic.”

Steve just groaned, not awake and not caring what on earth Danny's problem was now. He shifted a little, getting more comfortable across Danny's back, which he was using as a pillow.

“Seriously, Steve, you're crushing me here,” Danny grumbled.

“Ngh, too bad,” Steve mumbled, shifting a little so he was using even more of Danny as a pillow, wrapping his arms securely around the other mans torso and tangling their legs together.

“France is supposed to be romantic.”

“Danny, shut up,” Steve mumbled. “M'sleeping.”

“I'm not. I'm awake and watching it snow on the _Alps_.”

“That's nice,” Steve muttered as he dropped off to sleep again. Clearly Danny wasn't having it because he pushed himself up with a grunt, causing Steve to slide off of him and fall to the bed with a groan.

“C'mon, aren't you usually the one that likes to sleep in?” Steve grumbled, shading his eyes from the glare coming from the partially open curtains.

“We're on our honeymoon, babe, I didn't expect any sleeping at all,” Danny said and Steve cracked an eye open, finding the exact smirk he was expecting and he rolled his eyes.

“Danno, you're insane,” he groaned as he rolled on his back and stretched.

“Now he know how it feels to be me,” Danny chuckled, reaching for a robe to shrug on as he left the bed, wandering over to the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the mountains.

True to his word Steve had booked them into the honeymoon suite of one of the most exclusive resorts he could find, one that could only be reached by an hour long ride in an, admittedly very comfortable, cable car. There was a twenty-four hour kitchen, a full bar, an all hours spa, an olympic sized swimming pool, a gym that looked like it belonged in Hollywood.

The room was bigger than Steve's house and the bathroom, with its sunken Jacuzzi tub, was bigger than Danny's first, second, and third apartments in Honolulu put together. The kingsized bed was the most comfortable thing Danny had ever laid on, the sheets the most expensive silk money could buy and the pillows the softest down feathers.

There was also a hot tub on the balcony that was kept at a wonderful 101F so that even when it had been snowing the night they had arrive, Steve and Danny had stripped down to nothing and settled happily in the hot tub for over an hour.

Now, as nice as all this was, Danny was Danny, and he had really been wondering how much all of this had cost. After all, they were here for two weeks. He was working himself up to a panic attack thinking about how much all of this was going to cost. And Steve, the bastard, wouldn't even give him a hint.

“Danno, quit thinking,” Steve mumbled, surprising Danny as he snuck up and wrapped his arms around the shorter man from behind. “I can hear you from the bed.”

“I think, it's what I do,” Danny said, tone grumpy now.

“Go take a shower, huh? I'll order breakfast,” Steve said, placing a kiss on Danny's shoulder as he shooed the other man toward the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later Danny heard voices through the cracked bathroom door, thinking it was room service. He paused, his cop instincts kicking in and he realized the voice he was hearing was horribly familiar. Rinsing the soap out of his hair quickly he left the shower running and stepped onto the mat, wrapping one of the overlarge towels around his waist and quickly extracting his gun from the bottom drawer of the sink, flicking the safety off and checking the chamber. He peered out the door and felt his heart drop into his stomach.

Across the room Catherine had a gun pointed at Steve's head. Equally Steve had a gun pointed at her, but what really ticked Danny off in that instant was that she was even there. She was supposed to be under guard and heavy lock and key, not running around France, armed, and out for blood.

“You were supposed to die,” she was saying, her hands shaking as she held the gun. Danny did not like the fact that she had her finger on the trigger and was shaking like that. He knew if Steve shot her she could accidentally pull the trigger and shoot him.

“Catherine, I still don't understand what's wrong with you, we were friends for years and then all of a sudden you're trying to kill me?” Steve said, calm as always. Danny was behind Catherine so she couldn't see him, but Steve would be able to see that he was peeking out from the bathroom, armed and ready to shoot. Steve's eyes didn't move to Danny but his brows furrowed and Danny knew that Steve had seen him.

“You left me!” Catherine shrieked. “You were supposed to love me and you left me!”

“Is this about Danny?” Steve asked, his mouth drawn tight.

“This is about everything,” Catherine shouted. “This is about the navy, the task force, that stupid island, that mission in Korea, everything!”

“You know I never meant to hurt you, Cath,” Steve said quietly. “Our lives went different ways, you left me first, remember?”

“He's dead, Steve,” she sobbed, knowing Steve was referring to Billy, who had been killed shortly after Catherine had rekindled her relationship her ex. “He's dead and it's your fault!”

“Catherine, calm down,” Steve said softly.

Danny's heart was pounding, making him dizzy as he edged the door open as quietly as possible so he could get closer, have a clearer shot that didn't involve the chance of hitting Steve.

“You left me all alone, you abandoned me for them, for him! I wasn't trying to kill you that first time but now, now I am. Goodbye, Steve.”

Two shots rang out, one hitting Catherine center mass and one right between her eyes, taking her out for good. She crumpled to the floor as Danny and Steve stood, somewhat shocked, before looking at each other.

“You brought a gun?! On our honeymoon?!” Danny shouted, glaring at Steve, picking the lower priority item to shout about since he really didn't want to address what just happened.

“So did you!” Steve defended, eyeing Danny's gun.

“That's not the point!”

“That is the point, Danno, I brought a gun, you brought a gun, you don't get to yell at me for it, I just saved your life.”

“Saved? You? No, no see, Steve, I saved your life, right there, that's my bullet in her head,” Danny said, scooting forward carefully and kicking the gun away from the body on the floor. “Check for a pulse, I'll cover for you.”

“She's dead, Danny,” Steve grumbled, even though he leaned down and checked for any signs of life. He was relieved when he found none.

“She was also in jail. Military jail. And here she is, in our suite in the French Alps. Spouting insanity after clearly having some kind of mental breakdown.”

“Fair point,” Steve sighed. “Lets get dressed, I'm sure someone heard that, unless you want to talk to the local cops in just a towel?”

Scowling Danny flipped him off and grabbed some pants, which he had just managed to fasten when the knock sounded on the door. Predictably Steve was already fully dressed and Danny nodded toward the door after he pulled a t-shirt over his head. Steve's eyebrows raised as high as they could go when he pulled open the door to find Chin, Kono, and two interpol agents outside the door.

“I was going to warn you that she escaped, but I guess you figured that out,” Chin said, eyeing the body on the floor.

“You couldn't have called?” Danny grumbled, flicking the safety on his weapon back on.

“She cut the phone lines to the resort when she got here. She was on a transport to a classified location somewhere on the east coast when she knocked out both the guards, picked the locks on her cuffs, and then held the driver at gunpoint. After she made him take her to the closest airport she stole a private plane and flew it here herself. We'd already alerted the local police to watch out for her and when they couldn't reach the resort they called Interpol, who showed up the same time we did,” Chin explained.

Steve and Danny glanced at each other, both wondering when their live had started involving 'far fetched' on such a regular basis, when the resorts concierge appeared in the doorway, ringing his hands.

A short man in a pristine suit and already without most of his hair, he chattered away very rapidly in French. While Steve spoke some French, this was far too fast for him to catch a single word. Fortunately one of the interpol officers made the man calm down and translated.

“He is offering to move your room, free of charge,” the man said, heavily accented, but understandable. “The Presidential Suite is available. He hopes you will stay, and he's sorry their security didn't apprehend her.”

“We kind of have a bit of a situation here...” Danny said, waving his hands to indicate the suite and it's state.

“Go on,” Chin said, nodding at both of them. “We'll deal with this. I'll send Kono up for statements later and then we'll be out of your hair. They'll bring your stuff up as soon as everything's cleared.”

“Mahalo,” Steve said as he shook Chin's hand before they followed the Concierge.

“Well, I always figured our honeymoon would be unconventional,” Steve grinned, slinging his arm around Danny's shoulders as they followed the Concierge down the hall to a private elevator. Danny snorted.

“Unconventional. You should be way more upset about the fact that your ex girlfriend escaped military custody and flew to France to try and kill us, all while suffering from who knows what inside her broken brain” Danny grumbled. Steve shrugged.

“It's over. At this point pretty much all I feel is relief,” he said. “I figure if I'm going to have some kind of kidnapping PTSD or recurring traumatic nightmares, it can wait a couple weeks. Right now I just want to enjoy my honeymoon.”

“Shmuck,” Danny muttered under his breath.

 

“You love me,” Steve whispered and Danny sighed, nodding.

 

“God help me, I really do,” he grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Thank you so much for sticking with me while I wrote this and waiting for me to get the last bit up! Thank you for the comments, the kudos, and the encouragements! This story is officially done! I hope you enjoyed it and can forgive my areas where I got a little 'This takes too much research to be super accurate' and fudged it a little. I hope my artistic license wasn't -too- much.
> 
> <3 to all my readers!


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